System and Method for Software License Management for Concurrent License Management and Issuance

ABSTRACT

The present invention is a method and system for software license management. The License Management System (LMS) is comprised of three components. These three components are the License Client (LC), the License Server (LS) and the Network License Manager (NLM). For the system to function the LC and LS are required. The NLM exists to facilitate and manage concurrent license usage.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/695,338, entitled “System and Method for Software License Managementfor Concurrent License Management and Issuance”, filed on Apr. 2, 2007.The benefit under 35 U.S.C. 121 of which is hereby claimed, and theaforementioned application is hereby incorporated by reference.

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH

Not Applicable

SEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM

Not Applicable

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a system and method forsoftware license management. More specifically the present inventionrelates to a system and method for software license management forconcurrent license management and license issuance.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is method and system for software licensemanagement. Many other software license management systems are taught orknown in the prior art, but each has their own respective shortcomingson which the present invention improves or eliminates in addition to theadditional elements taught by the present invention.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,013,294 discloses a license management system forsoftware which drives a single computer or a plurality of computersincluding: an application program for requesting a decision of thenumber of license which it needs to drive itself and for receivingissuance of the license; a number of license decision unit fordetermining the necessary number of licenses in accordance with therequest from the application program; and a license management unit forissuing the number of licenses which was determined by the number oflicense decision unit. According to this invention, it is possible toprovide a license management system enabling issuance of a license inwhich the sales strategy of a software maker was considered.

In U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,612 a method and system for providing flexibilityto a license management system is disclosed. This license managementsystem permits the concurrent use of multiple copies of a softwareprogram over a network comprising a plurality of client workstations,each client workstation having a copy of the software program installedthereon requiring an authorization from one of a plurality of licenseservers each time the software program is used. For security reasons,the license management system requires that at least the integermajority of the plurality of license servers is active at any time. Thismethod and system allows a change to the number of license servers, butimposes several limitations.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,712 teaches a software application wherein theverification and license check out functions which are normallyperformed by a license server of a network software license system. Theencrypted license information is contained in a license token, and issorted in the database controlled by the license server. In contrast tothe prior art where the license server either grants or denies therequest after verifying the user's credentials, the license server herefinds the correct license token for the software application andtransmits the license token to the licensing library.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,143 allows for the electronic management andenforcement of software licenses used only in a network or non-networkenvironment to facilitate product licensing and upgrades. Further, itonly accommodates the use of compact disc read-only memory (CD ROM)product distribution.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,412 teaches an improved software license managementsystem wherein a license server initializes a license database byreceiving a package license description that includes component licensedescriptions for component software products in a package. A clientcomputer system can request a license for a component product in apackage. A license is granted to the client when the client is allowedto receive the license according to a license policy.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,189,145 teaches a software licensing system includes alicense generator located at a licensing clearinghouse and at least onelicense server and multiple clients located at a company or entity. Whena company wants a software license, it sends a purchase request (andappropriate fee) to the licensing clearinghouse. The license generatorat the clearinghouse creates a license pack containing a set of one ormore individual software licenses.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,141 teaches a software license control system basedon independent software registration servers. The registration serversare open to all software manufacturers. On user's computer, a softwareproduct asks the user software license control program whether the userhas a usage license for the software product. The user license controlprogram checks the license file, received from a software registrationserver, and answers the software product.

U.S. Patent Application Publication 20020091645 discloses a licensingsystem comprising an application information database into which alicense management server machine stores a license menu containing afunction, a term and a number of times and the like for which usage maybe approved with respect to software to be usage-approved. A userterminal is capable of accessing the application information databasevia an Internet network. Therefore, according to this system o, asoftware license granting technique is provided in which a range ofsoftware licensing choices is expanded so that various user needs can bemet even with the same single software, and unlawful copying of thesoftware that is approved for use by the user can be eliminated.

U.S. Patent Application Publication 20050102240 discloses a softwarelicensing system includes a license generator located at a licensingclearinghouse and at least one license server and multiple clientslocated at a company or entity. When a company wants a software license,it sends a purchase request and appropriate fee to the licensingclearinghouse. The license generator at the clearinghouse creates alicense pack containing a set of one or more individual softwarelicenses. The license generator digitally signs the license pack andencrypts it with the license server's public key. The license server isresponsible for distributing the software licenses from the license packto individual clients. When a client needs a license, the license serverdetermines the client's operating system platform and grants theappropriate license. The license server digitally signs the softwarelicense and encrypts it using the client's public key. The license isstored locally at the client.

Because the system of the present invention is designed to licensesoftware it is a natural target for anyone who wants the software anddoes not want to pay for it. Because this software is a target of“hackers” it must have defenses beyond the ordinary for protectingitself against those who seek to destroy its ability to perform its jobof guarding software usage rights as defined by the software companythat employs the system of the present invention to safeguard theirsoftware. To this end the system of the present invention will alwaysemploy the strongest security schema available to it based on thecircumstances of the environment in which it is running. To ensure thehighest degree of protection the system is designed with multiple layersof security that act independently of the others. While no system iscompletely secure, the intent of this design is to make the cost ofbreaking into the system so high as to be impractical.

Therefore it is an objective of the present invention to teach a LicenseManagement System (LMS) is, in a best mode, comprised of threecomponents. These three components are the License Client (LC), theLicense Server (LS) and the Network License Manager (NLM).

It is another objective of the present invention to teach a LicenseManagement System (LMS) that, in an alternative embodiment only requiresa License Client (LC) and License Server (LS) to properly function.

It is yet another objective of the present invention to teach a LicenseManagement System (LMS) further comprised of a Network License Manager(NLM) component that exists to facilitate and manage concurrent licenseusage and issuance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is method and system for software licensemanagement that is recorded on computer-readable medium and capable ofexecution by a computer. The License Management System (LMS) iscomprised of three components. These three components are the LicenseClient (LC), the License Server (LS) and the Network License Manager(NLM). For the system to function the LC and LS are required. The NLMexists to facilitate and manage concurrent license usage. The mainpatentable elements focus on the concurrent license management andmethod of license issuance.

The License Server and Network License Manager both provide an API toallow end users to write scripts to implement business rules in thedecision making process at critical events in the registration,issuance, or usage of a license or customer. The License Server andNetwork License Manager both provide an API to allow end users to extendthe functionality of the license server and/or network license managerover multiple platform such as Windows operating systems, Unix, Linux,Mac OSX, Solaris, Various cell phone operating systems and variousgaming systems such as Sony's PlayStation, Nintendo gaming systems, andMicrosoft's Xbox gaming systems with real time notification when thelicense expires.

The license client provides facilities to run multiple licensesconcurrently to enable complex licensing criterion. The License Serverand Network License Manager user interfaces provide a graphical methodto implement logical business rules. The License Server allows licensesto be revoked or suspended after issuance.

The Network License Manager provides encapsulations of a set of licensesin a logical container, named a license pool. Each pool has a set ofconfigurable attributes that are applied to all licenses contained inthat pool. These attributes allow for: the permanent license assignment,online or offline usage of a license, configurable number of missedlicense to NLM check ins before the license disables itself, and allowor disallow other pools to use a configurable number of licenses in theevent that the other pool runs out of available licenses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a partof the specification, illustrate the present invention and, togetherwith the description, further serve to explain the principles of theinvention and to enable a person skilled in the pertinent art to makeand use the invention.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual view of the licensing system of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating Business Rules Callback Processingof the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the process of the Client Side of the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the process of the Server Side of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 5 a and 5 b are flow charts of the process of the Client Side ofthe present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the process of the Network License Manager ofthe present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of the process of the Network License Manager andClient of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of the process of the Server and Client of thepresent invention;

FIG. 9 is a screen shot of the GUI of the present invention showing thecustomer editor;

FIG. 10 is a screen shot of the GUI of the present invention showing theuser editor;

FIG. 11 is a screen shot of the GUI of the present invention showing theserver's general configuration editor;

FIG. 12 is a screen shot of the GUI of the present invention showing theoverall cluster configuration;

FIG. 13 is a screen shot of the GUI of the present invention showing thecluster node configuration; and

FIG. 14 is a screen shot of the GUI of the present invention showing theproduct editor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following detailed description of the invention of exemplaryembodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanyingdrawings (where like numbers represent like elements), which form a parthereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific exemplaryembodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodimentsare described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art topractice the invention, but other embodiments may be utilized andlogical, mechanical, electrical, and other changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. The followingdetailed description is therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense,and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appendedclaims.

Now referring to FIG. 1, the Licensing System 1 of the present inventionis recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by acomputer and is comprised of three modules the interact via a multi-usernetwork 14 such as the Internet. These modules are the License Client(LC) 13, the License Server (LS) 6, and the Network License Manager(NLM) 15. For the licensing system to function the License Client 13 andLicense Server are required. In an alternative embodiment, the NetworkLicense Manager 15 exists to facilitate and manage concurrent licenseusage.

The License Server 6 further consists the following additionalcomponents: an identity management system 2, database interferencesubsystem 3, web server 4, server clustering subsystem 5, licenseissuance subsystem 96 and license validation subsystem 97. The licensemanager 15 is further comprised of the following additional components:an identity management subsystem 20, database interference subsystem 17,web server 18, server clustering subsystem 19, license pooling subsystem7, license validation subsystem 8, and license monitoring subsystem 9.Finally, the Client 13 is further comprised of the following additionalcomponents: an identity management subsystem 12, license validationsubsystem 10, and license monitoring system 11.

Interaction between the different components of the system isaccomplished via messaging. A message is defined as an XML document thatconforms to a specific predefined schema. Each message is encrypted andsigned for security and authentication purposes. A message is most oftentransmitted and received via an HTTP or HTTPS connection, although in afew special circumstances a message can be transferred from onecomponent to another via the use of a file.

Now referring to FIG. 2 a flow chart illustrating the business rulescallback processing of the present invention. Business rules callbackprocessing is accomplished via one of three options. When the LicenseServer/Network License Manager starts, it reads a directive named“BusinessRule” from the configuration file. This directive can have fourvalues which are “UserCompiled”, “Java”, “DotNet”, or “NotImplemented”.In the case of “NotImplimented” the function will simply returnimmediately. The Client Side/User Interface 96 consists of threeroutines, the first is the writing of .NET code to the user interface(UT) 98, which is then compiled 99 and uploaded 100 to the server 97 andits compiled .NET assembly 110; the second is the writing of the C/C++code to the UT 106, compiled 108, and then uploaded as a shared libraryor dll file to the server 107 and its compiled C/C++ object 109; and thethird is the writing of the java code 101, which is then compiled 102and uploaded to the server 103 and its Java class file 116.

On the server side 97, a server request is first received from a licenseclient 104, which triggers a callback function 113. The configurationfile next indicates that the server should use Java code 114 and thenuses a Business Rule Directive from the configuration file to determineif it should continue to use Java or switch to User Compiled or .NET tofurther process the request 115. If java is continued the system callsthe java class with the serialized request 117 and obtains if from thejava class file 116. If the serialized request is to be processed viauser compiled, the system calls out to the users compiled shared library111 and obtains the information from the complied C/C++ object 109. Ifthe serialized request is to be processed via .NET, then the systemcalls out to the user's .NET assembly 112 and obtains the informationform the compiles .NET assembly 1110.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the process of the Client Side of the presentinvention. An external request, as shown by continuation point “D” 83starts 21 the client side process. Once started 21, the first step is toselect a client 22 and a request for the local license and customerregistration 24 is sent to the license server 25, denoted ascontinuation point “C” 81. If the client operation selection 22 is touse a local license 26 the system first determines if the license hasbeen tampered with 29. If tampering has occurred an error message 30 isreturned and the operation stops. If the license has not been tamperedwith 29 a second check is made to ensure the license has not expired 28,if expired an error message 30 is returned and the operation stops. Ifthe license has not been tampered with and has not expired it is okay touse 27 and system returns to its start position 21.

Now referring to FIG. 4, a flow chart of the process on the Server Sideof the present invention is illustrated. The server side will beinitiated from either a request for the local license and customerregistration 24 received, denoted as continuation point “C” 81 or froman electronically transmitted file to a customer service representative,denoted as continuation point “B” 82. After initiation, a request typeis first determined 36 and the system process the license request anddetermines if the customer is registered 32 in the database 38. If thecustomer is not registered a certificate and customer's public key isissued 39 and sent to the client 42, the customer is registered 40 andthe analysis of the license continues 33. The system will also determineif the server handles the product of the license request 31, and if so,will continue its analysis, but if not, it will return a responseindicating such 37 to the client 42. If the server does handle theproduct and the customer is registered, the system places a call to theend user business rules script 34 and determines if the request has beenrejected 35. If the request has been rejected a message will be sent tothe client 42, and if not a determination on whether a license can beissued 41 and the answer returned to the client 42.

Valid license types issued by the system of the present inventionincludes: unrestricted, limited time evaluation, limited runsevaluation, software lease, and count uses.

The unrestricted license type which places no restrictions on how longthe user of the license may continue to use the software.

The Limited Time Evaluation wherein the license will evaluate theLicense Time Duration, License Time Unit, and License Timer Startvariables to create a time span that the license will then compareagainst the current system time to determine if the license time periodhas been exceeded, and as such expire itself. As a safeguard against auser simply resetting the system clock to an earlier date, upon use ofthe license it will check the current system time against the Last UsedDate property and validate that the current system time is not earlierthan the Last Used Date property. Once validated the Last Used Date willbe updated to the current system time.

The system may also incorporate a License Monitor to act as a monitoringprocess for all licenses in use by clients. If a periodic client licensecheck-in is required for a license or a number of licenses, then thisfunction will monitor the statistics updated by the Update Client UsageInfo method. If those statistics exceed allowed values then the licensewill be declared an orphan and be reclaimed by the NLM. Exceededstatistics means, for example, that the license checked out by theclient required that the client call the NLM every five minutes toupdate the NLM that the client was still alive and active and using thelicense, and that it could only miss two check-in cycles. If the LicenseMonitor found that the last checking time for the client was ten minutesand one second, then the license would be declared orphaned andreclaimed. Production statistics and real-time monitoring will be on theorder of milliseconds, not minutes and seconds.

The Limited Runs Evaluation combines the Number Of Allowed Runs propertywith the License Run Count property to determine if the license hasexpired.

The Software Lease checks that two conditions are valid beforeproceeding. The first condition to be checked is to ensure that thecurrent system date is greater than or equal to the License Valid StarTime property. In the case that the current system time is less than thevalid start time the license will return an error message. The secondcondition to be checked is to ensure that the current system time isless than or equal to the License Valid End Time property. If thecurrent system time is greater than the License Valid End Time propertythe license will return an error message. As a safeguard against a usersimply resetting the system clock to an earlier date, upon use of thelicense it will check the current system time against the Last Used Dateproperty and validate that the current system time is not earlier thanthe Last Used Date property. Once validated the Last Used Date will beupdated to the current system time. The Count Uses license willincrement the License Run Count property.

Now referring to FIGS. 5 a and 5 b, flow charts illustrating of theprocess of the Client Side of the present invention are shown. If aninput is received to start 43 the operation of the present invention,and the selected client operation 44 is for the use of a concurrentnetwork license 45, the system immediately and directly access thenetwork license manager 15, denoted as continuation point “E” 85, forthe analysis of the request type 46 and additional process steps of thenetwork license manager 15. At the conclusion of the network licensemanager's 15 processes a return message is sent to the client 56,denoted as continuation point “F” 86 that is delivered to client 13,denoted as continuation point “A” 84.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the process of the Network License Manager ofthe present invention. The network license manager (NLM) is a serverthat sits on a customer's network and handles the management ofconcurrent network licenses. One of the fundamental architecturalorganizations of this server is the concept of license pools. A licensepool is a group of licenses that are controlled and allowed to be usedbased on a set of configuration parameters.

The pool concept is illustrated by the following example. Company XYZhas an NLM installed on its intranet. Three different departments in XYZhave purchased licenses for the same software product, but the fundshave come from department budgets rather than an overall company budget.Because of this the Sales and Marketing department does not want theResearch and Development department, who have a much higher demand forthe limited number of licenses using all of Sales and Marketing'slicenses when Sales and Marketing needs to use the software. TheAdministration department has a number of licenses but does nottypically use them often, but must have access to the software when theyneed it.

In this embodiment there are three license pools. One each forAdministration, Sales and Marketing, and Research and Development.Because R&D was getting the username and password for the Salesdepartment's license pool, the Sales department has set theauthentication level of their pool of licenses to require registrationwith the NLM and use the NLM issued PKI X.509 certificate forauthentication against the pool before a license may be used by therequester. Sales has also set their maximum number of licenses that maybe used in overflow requests to zero effectively turning off theoverflow participation of their pool. The Research and Developmentdepartment's pool has basic username/password authentication, as is theAdministration's pool. More over the Administration's pool has theirmaximum number of licenses that may be used in overflow requests set tominus one (−1) which means that all licenses in the pool are availableto overflow requests.

Still referring to FIG. 6, upon receipt of input to the network licensemanager 15, denoted as continuation point “E” 85, the analysis of therequest type 46 is initiated. A check to determine if the customer isregistered is run 53. If the customer is not registered a certificateand customer's public key is issued 54 and sent to the client 56, andthe customer is registered 55. Concurrently, the license is checked 47for valid credentials 48 and caller permission to check out the license48. If the license is invalid 57 or the caller has no rights 58, amessage is sent to the client 56. Next a check is done to determine ifthe license pool has any available licenses 50 and if so a valid licenseis marked in use and returned to the client 52 in a message 56. If thelicense pool does not have an available license an overflow pool ischecked for available licenses. If an overflow pool license is availablea valid license is marked in use and returned to the client 52 in amessage 56. If no overflow pool license is available a message statingsuch 59 is returned to the client 56.

Now referring to FIG. 7, a flow chart of the process of the NetworkLicense Manager 70 and Client 69 of the present invention areillustrated. Upon the client's 69 receipt of a response message from thenetwork license manager, denoted as continuation point “A” 84, a checkof the response is started 60. If the response is based on invalidcredentials, no rights, or no available license an error message isreturned to the user 61. If the response is valid and a license isreturned, the license is added to the active license list 62 and thetime cycle is started in the license revalidation timer 63. When thetimer cycle expires the first step is to determine if the license hasexpired since the last check 64. If the license has expired an errormessage is returned to the user 61, if it has not expired the next stepis to determine if the network license manager can be contacted 65. Ifthe NLM can not be contacted, then a check is run to determine if themaximum number of missed NLM updates limit has been exceeded 66, if notthe process returns to the revalidation timer 63, if it has beenexceeded an error message is returned to the user 67. If the NLM iscontacted, then a check to determine if the license has been reclaimedby the NLM is run 68. If the NLM has reclaimed the license an errormessage is returned to the user 61, if not the process returns to therevalidation timer 63.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of the process of the Server 72 and Client 71 ofthe present invention when a customer service representative or otherhuman interaction is required by a user during the process of the systemof the present invention. When a user starts the process 73 on theclient side 71 and selects a client operation 74 a request is made byfile 75 or an offline key request is submitted 77. The file request 75is followed by a license request 76 made by a file that iselectronically transmitted to a customer service representative 78 whothen accesses the server, denoted as continuation point “B” 82 whichresults in the issuance of an offline license via file transactions.Alternatively, an offline key request 77 may be provided to a customerservice representative 78 by the user 98 so that the customer servicerepresentative 78 can input the client key and license parameters 79 andprocess offline the key request and generate and offline authorizationcode 80 that is then provided to the user 98.

Because this system is designed to license software it is a naturaltarget for anyone who wants the software and does not want to pay forit. this software is a target of “hackers” it must have defenses.Measures to disable the system of the present invention that have beentaken into account by this document. One strategy for disabling thepresent invention is by replacing the DLL libraries. The presentinvention requires that the present invention DLLs be digitally signed.This signature can then be compared by the employing application andvalidated that the signature of the DLL it is using matches theknown-good signature.

Another method would be the manually writing of a license and feeding itinto the present invention system, or altering an existing license. Thesystem of the present invention requires license encryption i to preventknowledge of the format of the license. Additionally, licenses aresigned by the present invention's License Server (LS) that issues them.This LS is also registered with the present invention License Client(LC) that requested the license. Included in this LS registrationinformation is the server's encryption and signature public keys in theform of X.509 digital certificates. Each time the license is used thelicense's signature is validated against the server's signature X.509certificate to ensure that the license has been issued by a valid LS. Atthe option of the employing software application, the license may callthe issuing LS to ensure that it is still valid and has not beenrevoked. Should the call to the server fail the application will benotified of this via the programming construct of an event. Finally,different cryptographic methodologies and cryptographic keys are used inthe various stages of the license issuance process.

Another possible attack could occur via the copying a working databaseto a second machine. To thwart this, the client database contains uniquedata about the machine that the software is running on. Specifically thehard drive manufacturer's serial number for each of the drives installedin the computer and the MAC address of each of the computer's NIC cards.Each time the software is run the software will validate that theequipment that it is running on matches the data it has stored in it'sdatabase.

Another potential opening is the turning back of the system clock toperpetually stay within the license's allowed validity time when using a“software lease” or “restricted by time” license. Each time a license ofthis type is used the current system time is checked against the lastused system time. If the current system time is greater than the lastused system time the last used system time is updated to the currenttime. Each time the license is validated, which happens several times aminute, if the current system time is less than the last used systemtime, the license is expired.

In the case of the Network License Manager a need exists to balance thelevel of security prescribed by the employing software company and thelevel of effort required by administrators to register and maintain allpossible users of the system with the NLM. To facilitate flexibility andsecurity there are four methods provided by the NLM to allow users tomake use of licenses from the NLM. These four methods exist strictly forusage of licenses from the NLM. Any administration of the NLM mirrorsthe same security protections that exist in the LS.

Now referring to FIGS. 9-14, the user interface is comprised of panes infour docking areas of the screen. A first area holds the explorercomponents 98 that are navigational in nature. A second area holds theeditor components 89. The editor components are, as their name implies,used to create, edit, or remove information. Depending on the controlthis may be done via textual editing, or graphical composition such asreport designer and workflow editor. A third area 90 holds the propertyeditor and palette window, the palette windows is primarily used in thegraphical composition editors. A fourth area displays the output ofactivities such as compiling a report.

The server explorer is the primary navigation tool of the desktop GUIand is comprised of servers registered with the IDE and belonging to twocategories, The present invention License Servers and Network LicenseManagers. These registered servers are displayed in a JTree control.

The root node of the tree is labeled “The present invention Servers”.This root node contains 2 child nodes. The first of these child nodes islabeled “The present invention License Servers” and contains 0 . . . nchild nodes, one for each of the license servers registered with theIDE. The second of theses child nodes is labeled “The present inventionNetwork License Managers” and contains 0 . . . n child nodes, one foreach of the network license manager servers registered with the IDE. Inboth cases the present invention's License Servers and the presentinvention's Network License Managers, the default text of the tree nodeis the same as the machine name of the registered server, however thislabel can be changed to an end-user defined value.

Sub-nodes common to both the “The present invention License Servers”node and the “The present invention Network License Servers” node arethe “Customers”, “Reports”, “Users”, and “Application Configuration”nodes. The “The present invention License Servers” sub-node also has 2sub-nodes that are unique to the “The present invention License Servers”node. These two sub-nodes are the “Products” sub-node and the “PendingLicense Requests” sub-node. The “The present invention Network LicenseServers” sub-node also has 2 sub-nodes unique to it. These subnodes arethe “License Pools” sub-node and the “Orphaned Licenses” sub-node.

This section enumerates the actions that the GUI takes when individualtree nodes are clicked upon. When the present invention License Serversnode is left clicked, the “License Server List” editor is displayed inthe editors pane of the GUI. When the present invention Network LicenseManagement Servers node is left clicked, the “Network License ManagementServers List” editor is displayed in the editors pane of the GUI.Specific When a specific the present invention license server isselected from the list of the present invention license servers listedas children of the “The present invention License Servers” node, the“The present invention License Server” editor is launched and populatedwith the details of the server selected in the tree. When a specific thepresent invention network license management server is selected from thelist of the present invention license servers listed as children of the“The present invention Network License Management Servers” node, the“The present invention Network License Management Server” editor islaunched and populated with the details of the server selected in thetree. When a “Customers” node directly under a specific server isclicked, the Customers Editor is launched in the editors pane of the GUIand the customer list of the Customers Editor is populated with thecustomers registered with the specific server. When a “Users” nodedirectly under a specific server is clicked, the Users Editor islaunched in the editors pane of the GUI and the user list of the UsersEditor is populated with the users registered with the specific server.When a “Products” node directly under a specific server is clicked, theProducts Editor is launched in the editors pane of the GUI and theproduct list of the Products Editor is populated with the productsregistered with the specific server. Pending License Requests Node. Whena “Pending License Requests” node directly under a specific server isclicked, the Pending License Requests Editor is launched in the editorspane of the GUI. When a “Server Configuration” node directly under aspecific server is clicked, the Server Configuration Editor is launchedin the editors pane of the GUI.

When a “TCP/IP Settings” node under a specific server is clicked, theTCP/IP Settings Editor is launched in the editors pane of the GUI andthe TCP/IP settings for the selected server are populated in the editor.When a “Security Settings” node under a specific server is clicked, theSecurity Settings Editor is launched in the editors pane of the GUI andthe Security settings for the selected server are populated in theeditor. When a “Logging Settings” node under a specific server isclicked, the Logging Settings Editor is launched in the editors pane ofthe GUI and the Logging settings for the selected server are populatedin the editor. When a “Database Settings” node under a specific serveris clicked, the Database Settings Editor is launched in the editors paneof the GUI and the Database settings for the selected server arepopulated in the editor. When a “License Pools” node directly under aspecific server is clicked, the License Pools Editor is launched in theeditors pane of the GUI and the customer list of the License PoolsEditor is populated with the customers registered with the specificserver. When a “Orphaned Licenses” node directly under a specific serveris clicked, the Orphaned Licenses Editor is launched in the editors paneof the GUI and the customer list of the Orphaned Licenses Editor ispopulated with the customers registered with the specific server. Whenthe business rules tree node is clicked the system opens one of twodifferent editor windows. If the selected scripting language is Javathen a Java editor window that has the event functions already setup. Ifthe scripting language is C++ then a C++ scripting window is opened. Ifthe language is C# or VB or uses COM then the code will need to bewritten and compiled in Visual Studio, and is thus outside the scope ofthis IDE, however some mechanism to indicate which language the servershould call to run the scripted business rules needs to be included.

Now referring to FIGS. 9 and 10, the customer editor 87 is used to enteror edit customer information as well as to view a license history forthat customer. The editor is comprised of two major sections, which arethe customer results grid section 89 and the customer details section90. The customer details section is further broken down into twosections which are customer information, and the license history.

FIG. 11 illustrates the Sever General Configuration 89 which isdisplayed in a second area 92 and is comprised of Timeout and Keep AliveSettings.

Referring to FIGS. 12 and 13 the values in the Cluster Configurationheading 90 and 91 fall under one of two categories. These categories are“Overall Cluster Configuration” 93 and “Cluster Node Configuration” 94.The first of these, Overall Cluster Configuration 93 is represented inFIG. 12. This first category is comprised of five variables which are:Worker Maintenance Interval, Enable Sticky Sessions, Force StickySessions, Load Balance Method, and Memory Locking Method. The secondcategory is comprised of eight variable which are: host address, loadbalancing factor, socket timeout, enable socket keep alive, RequestRetries, Connection Pool Size, Minimum Connection Pool Size, andConnection Pool Timeout.

Finally, FIG. 14 illustrates the Product Editor 92 which is displayed ina second area 95 and includes such variables as product name, productversion, product system ID, product unique identification informationand attribute fields.

There are 3 possible installation and deployment configurations for thepresent invention License Server and Network License Manager Server.These three configurations are: stand alone, cluster manager, andcluster worker.

The Stand Alone configuration installs both the Apache 2.0.x http serverwith the appropriate The present invention modules as well as the ApacheTomcat Java application server. In addition to these two applicationsthe installation will also write out the appropriate configuration files(i.e. mod_jk.conf, httpd.conf, ssl.conf, nw_firewall.conf, etc).

The Cluster Manager configuration installs only the Apache 2.0.x httpserver without the present invention modules. The configuration filesthat are written are specific to the mod_jk clustering schema. Thesefiles are httpd.conf, ssl.conf, nw_firewall.com, mod_jk.conf andworkers.properties.

The Cluster Worker configuration is virtually identical to the StandAlone installation with the added requirement of informing the ClusterManager of it's installation and providing its information to theCluster Manager so that the Cluster Manager may update its configurationwith the new worker data.

It is appreciated that the optimum dimensional relationships for theparts of the invention, to include variation in size, materials, shape,form, function, and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemedreadily apparent and obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, andall equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings anddescribed in the above description are intended to be encompassed by thepresent invention.

Furthermore, other areas of art may benefit from this method andadjustments to the design are anticipated. Thus, the scope of theinvention should be determined by the appended claims and their legalequivalents, rather than by the examples given.

1. A software license management and issuance method recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer, said method comprising the steps of: making an external request from a client server; selecting a client, a request for a local license, and customer registration to a license server; determining if the license has been tampered with; determining if the license has not expired; returning an error message if tampering or expiration is determined, otherwise continuing with the following method steps; initiating a request from a server side from either a request from the local license and customer registration or from an electronically transmitted file to a customer service representative; determining a request type and processing the license request to determine if a customer is registered; if the customer is not registered, a certificate and customer's public key is issued and sent to the client, if the customer is registered, the analysis of the license continues; determining if server will handle the product of the license request, and if so, the server will continue the analysis, but if not, the server will return a response indicating such to the client; if the server does handle the product and the customer is registered, the system places a call to the end user business rules script and determines if the request has been rejected; and if the request has been rejected a message will be sent to the client, and if not a determination on whether a license can be issued and the answer returned to the client.
 2. A software license management and issuance method recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer of claim 1 wherein valid license types issued by the system of the present invention includes unrestricted, limited time evaluation, limited runs evaluation, software lease, and count uses.
 3. A software license management and issuance method recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer of claim 2 wherein the unrestricted license type places no restrictions on how long the user of the license may continue to use the software.
 4. A software license management and issuance method recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer of claim 2 wherein the limited time evaluation license will evaluate a license time duration, license time unit, and license timer start variables to create a time span that will then be compared against a current system time to determine if the license time period has been exceeded.
 5. A software license management and issuance method recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer of claim 1 further comprising the steps of the client side server; receiving an input to start a selected client operation for a concurrent network license; immediately and directly accesses a network license manager for analysis of the request type and additional process steps of the network license manager; and sending a message to the client at the conclusion of the network license manager's processes.
 6. A software license management and issuance method recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer of claim 1 further comprising the steps of the process of the network license manager creating a license pool comprising a group of licenses that are controlled and allowed to be used based on a set of configuration parameters said license pool consists of one or more subpools receipt of input to the network license manager; initiation of analysis of the request type to determine if the customer is registered is run; if the customer is not registered a certificate and customer's public key is issued and sent to the client, and the customer is registered; concurrently, the license is checked for valid credentials and caller permission to check out the license; if the license is invalid or the caller has no rights, a message is sent to the client; a check is done to determine if the license pool has any available licenses; if so, a valid license is marked in use and returned to the client; if the license pool does not have an available license an overflow pool is checked for available licenses; if an overflow pool license is available a valid license is marked in use and returned to the client in a message; and if no overflow pool license is available a message stating such is returned to the client.
 7. A software license management and issuance method recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer of claim 1 further comprising the steps of the business rules callback processing, said business rules callback processing is accomplished via one of three options a first option wherein when the license server and network license manager starts, reading a directive named “BusinessRule” from a configuration file, said directive can have four values which are “UserCompiled”, “Java”, “DotNet”, or “NotImplemented”; in the case of “Notlmplimented” the function will simply return immediately. a second option wherein the client side server and a user interface consists of three routines, a first routine wherein .NET code is written to the user interface, which is then compiled and uploaded to the server, and its compiled in to .NET assembly; a second routine wherein the of the code is written to the user interface, compiled, and then uploaded as a shared library or dll file to the server and its compiled object; and a third routine where the writing of the java code, which is then compiled and uploaded to the server as a Java class file.
 8. A software license management and issuance method recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer of claim 7 wherein, on the server side, a server request is first received from a license client, which triggers a callback function; the configuration file next indicates that the server should use Java code and then uses a Business Rule Directive from the configuration file to determine if it should continue to use Java or switch to User Compiled or .NET to further process the request; if java is continued the system calls the java class with the serialized request and obtains if from the java class file; if the serialized request is to be processed via user compiled, the system calls out to the users compiled shared library and obtains the information from the complied object; and if the serialized request is to be processed via .NET, then the system calls out to the user's .NET assembly and obtains the information form the compiles .NET assembly.
 9. A software license management and issuance method recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer of claim 1 comprising the following steps upon the client's receipt of a response message form the network license manager; if the response is based on invalid credentials, no rights, or no available license an error message is returned to the user; if the response is valid and a license is returned, the license is added to the active license list and time cycle is started in the license revalidation timer; when the timer cycle expires the first step is to determine if the license has expired since the last check; if the license has expired an error message is returned to the user; if it has not expired the next step is to determine if the network license manager can be contacted; if the network license manager can not be contacted, then a check is run to determine if the maximum number of missed network license manager updates limit has been exceeded, if not the process returns to the revalidation timer, if it has been exceeded an error message is returned to the user; if the network license manager is contacted, then a check to determine if the license has been reclaimed by the network license manager is run; and if the network license manager has reclaimed the license an error message is returned to the user, if not the process returns to the revalidation timer.
 10. A software license management and issuance method recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer of claim 1 further comprising the additional steps when a customer service representative or other human interaction is required by a user during the process of the system of the present invention; when a user starts the process on the client side and selects a client operation a request is made by file or an offline key request is submitted; and the file request is followed by a license request made by a file that is electronically transmitted to a customer service representative who then accesses the server, which results in the issuance of an offline license via file transactions.
 11. A software license management and issuance method recorded on computer-readable medium and capable of execution by a computer of claim 1 further comprising the additional steps when a customer service representative or other human interaction is required by a user during the process of the system of the present invention; an offline key request is provided to a customer service representative by the user so that the customer service representative can input the client key and license parameters and process offline the key request and generate and offline authorization code that is then provided to the user. 